Coldwater Creek files for bankruptcy; stores to close

GENEVA – Coldwater Creek, a women’s clothing retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday and announced it would close all of its stores by this summer.

The Coldwater Creek store at 310 Commons Drive, in the Geneva Commons shopping center, is among the chain’s 365 stores slated to be closed. A spokesman said the retailer has just under 6,000 total employees.

According to its website, Coldwater Creek has 18 retail stores in Illinois.

The company is promoting a 40 percent off sale of all full-priced merchandise and going-out-of-business sales in the coming months, according to a statement on the company’s website.

The company, based in Sandpoint, Idaho, has been for sale over the past six months, according to the website. It was unable to find a buyer or a source of capital to keep the company afloat while it worked on “turnaround strategies.”

In a prepared statement, Coldwater Creek President and Chief Executive Officer Jill Dean said, “While we are extremely disappointed with this outcome, the company’s declining liquidity position and the challenging retail environment, together with the fact that we have exhausted all other possibilities, requires that we take this action.”